Tone. Tone is a writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject or the reader. This poem is about the women of the same generation as the speaker’s mother. What does the speaker say these women were like? How does the speaker feel about the actions of these women? Use the graphic organizer to the right to help you keep track of your findings.

• It was practically impossible for African Americans to receive any kind of education during the time of slavery. Laws made it illegal to teach slaves to read or write. Some slaves did manage to learn, but such achievement was rare. After the Civil War (1861–1865), more than one thousand schools for African Americans were built. Educational problems still existed, however. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” schools for African-American students were legal and acceptable. This ruling was overturned as unconstitutional in 1954. Further desegregation of schools was required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• In In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, from which this poem is taken, Alice Walker explores the effects of denying education to a group of people. She suggests that many great African-American writers were lost to the world because they did not have the opportunity to learn to write. Despite this loss, some stories survived because people passed them down orally. Stories from the African-American oral tradition have influenced many writers.

Think of a person you respect. Why do you admire this person? What difficulties has this person overcome? Describe the actions of the person and your feelings about him or her.